Goodwin Procter has confirmed Mark Soundy and Sarah Priestley are joining following their resignation from Shearman & Sterling. Continue reading “‘An important step’: Shearman’s Soundy and Priestley resurface at Goodwin”
Linklaters LLPs show profits up 5% as board members share £20m
Linklaters top board members received almost £20m in profits for the 2015/16 financial year, according to the firm’s latest LLP filings. Continue reading “Linklaters LLPs show profits up 5% as board members share £20m”
Barclays takes more security over KWM assets with second debenture
Barclays has moved to take extra security over King & Wood Mallesons‘ assets with a second debenture, Companies House records show.
Continue reading “Barclays takes more security over KWM assets with second debenture”
Global London debate: The eagle has landed
Legal Business teamed up with Scottish Development International for a progress report on US law firms in the City. Has recent political and economic turbulence thwarted their advance at all?
While our 2016 Global London report – published before the Brexit vote on 23 June – identified the continuing rise of premium US advisers in the City, it also sounded a note of caution that 2016 – with Brexit and US presidential elections looming – could be a much bumpier ride for global legal services, conditions that not even the lean and slickly managed US outfits in the UK could avoid. With this in mind, we assembled a group of senior practitioners at some of the City’s most thrusting US firms for a progress report.
Continue reading “Global London debate: The eagle has landed”
Life during law: Jonny Earle, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
I don’t take anything for granted. I’ve been lucky, had some good breaks and people have invested time in me.
I can’t sing or dance. My partner thinks I’m like Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when I dance. That’s one reason I went into law. I fancied doing something City-based. I didn’t know what. I came out with my degree and thought: what do I want to do? I applied for a law summer scheme to see what it was like and that was it.
Continue reading “Life during law: Jonny Earle, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher”
The right platform – trying to find a long-term approach for Africa
‘There is no African law firm that does infrastructure the way we do; it’s front and centre of our strategy. There is a real gap in the market for a sector-based law firm.’
This bold statement comes from Richard Laudy, head of infrastructure at the latest foreign entrant into the increasingly popular South African market, Pinsent Masons. The national UK firm announced in July that it would be opening formally in Johannesburg in early 2017 with an office staffed by 20 lawyers and seven partners, including two partners taken from local heavyweight, Bowman Gilfillan, including head of construction Rob Morson and disputes partner Shane Voigt. Continue reading “The right platform – trying to find a long-term approach for Africa”
Too big to fail? The battle to keep ring-fencing reforms on track
Envisaged in the wake of the financial crisis, ring-fencing reforms will tie up banks and legal advisers for years. Legal Business asks if the process is on track
Experienced financial regulation partner Bob Penn, who moved to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton last year and advised HSBC on the controversial bank ring-fencing reforms while at Allen & Overy (A&O), is clear on whether those reforms are fit for purpose. ‘This is a hugely unwelcome and disruptive process, and frankly yet another distraction from running a profitable bank at a time when they are already facing a cascade of regulatory reform and the prospect of Brexit.’
Continue reading “Too big to fail? The battle to keep ring-fencing reforms on track”
Shell moves to ‘appropriate’ fee arrangements for all matters following panel review
Royal Dutch Shell has implemented a rule that all new legal matters must be priced using ‘appropriate’ fee arrangements (AFAs), following the oil major’s most recent panel review in April 2016.
AFAs, which include capped fees, fixed fees and contingency fees, have been in place for all litigation work since June 2014, but now apply to all legal matters. In addition, every piece of work will be put out to tender to three or more panel firms.
Joyce stands for re-election as Addleshaw partners vote through Scottish merger
Addleshaw Goddard managing partner John Joyce is to stand for re-election for a second term beginning May 2017, it was revealed at the end of November as partners at the firm voted to acquire HBJ Gateley’s three Scottish offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Joyce, who was appointed into the role in May 2014 for a three-year term, is hoping to serve another four years as managing partner, following recent changes to the firm’s partnership deed that extended the terms of both managing partner and senior partner by a year.
Continue reading “Joyce stands for re-election as Addleshaw partners vote through Scottish merger”
‘A combination of poor decisions’: KWM’s plan to recapitalise European business fails
Legacy SJ Berwin on the brink as global managing partner stands down
Persistent troubles at King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM) beleaguered European arm came to a head in November as the partnership, which is carrying more than £30m in debt, failed to get a deal over the line to recapitalise its business. As Legal Business went to press, the firm was assessing its options for a merger or pre-pack administration deal. It was understood that a shortlist of potential suitors had been drawn up.
Quinn Emanuel’s Jagusch says modern arbitration has become ‘riddled with rogues and corruption’
Arbitration today is full of routine corruption and rogue elements disrupting the process, argued Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Stephen Jagusch QC (pictured) at Legal Business‘s International Arbitration Summit in November.
The second annual arbitration event held at The Brewery saw a panel comprising a quartet of silks, including Jagusch, Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s Wendy Miles QC, Fountain Court Chambers’ Brian Doctor QC and 20 Essex Street’s Duncan Matthews QC.
Slaughters and Addleshaws follow Simmons in developing fintech funds
Slaughter and May and Addleshaw Goddard are targeting the fintech market, following in Simmons & Simmons’ footsteps to develop funds that back free legal advice to fintech clients.
In May Simmons launched a £100,000 fund to cover free advice for up to four fintech start-ups. In November Slaughters upped the ante, putting £300,000 forward for its initiative. Meanwhile, Addleshaws has also announced it will provide up to £500,000 worth of legal mentorship and advisory programmes for up to 16 selected start-ups over the next 12 months.
Continue reading “Slaughters and Addleshaws follow Simmons in developing fintech funds”
Burness Paull defends multimillion-dollar claim relating to legacy business
Long-running dispute reaches Court of Session
One of Scotland’s leading independent firms, Burness Paull, is defending a $210m claim relating to legacy business Paull & Williamsons, Legal Business has learned, with a procedural hearing understood to have taken place in the Court of Session – Scotland’s supreme civil court – in November.
Continue reading “Burness Paull defends multimillion-dollar claim relating to legacy business”
United states: Kaye Scholer/Arnold & Porter union sees reshuffle in City practice
Merger will create a $1bn firm with over 1,000 lawyers
In what is the largest announced US law firm merger of 2016, Washington DC’s Arnold & Porter and New York’s Kaye Scholer confirmed last month they are to merge, creating a firm with $1bn in revenue.
Continue reading “United states: Kaye Scholer/Arnold & Porter union sees reshuffle in City practice”
Excalibur judgment leaves dispute funders with £20m bill
In November the long-running Excalibur litigation came to a head as London’s Court of Appeal (CoA) found the third-party funders who bankrolled the case liable for the successful defendants’ £20m indemnity costs.
The dispute stems from the original litigation in 2013, a $1.6bn energy battle brought by Excalibur Ventures against Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Texas Keystone where it was alleged it was entitled to a 30% share in the rights of four oil fields in Kurdistan.
Continue reading “Excalibur judgment leaves dispute funders with £20m bill”
Doubling up: Freshfields scores roles on Europe’s largest real estate transactions this year
First-time instruction for Kirkland in €2.4bn purchase
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised on two of the largest European real estate transactions of 2016 as The Blackstone Group purchased a property portfolio from German real estate group IVG Immobilien for €3.3bn while Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC picked up warehouse company P3 Logistic Parks from TPG Real Estate for €2.4bn.
UK projects teams earn their stripes as MoD makes key changes to army deal
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and CMS Cameron McKenna reprised their advisory roles as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) made a £1.1bn extension to the largest accommodation private finance initiative project it has undertaken.
In November the MoD amended its long-running Project Allenby/Connaught contract to include an army basing programme, which will provide new accommodation and improve facilities for soldiers. Negotiations have ensured the original transaction, which had a value of £8bn and was signed in 2006, will continue without disruption.
Continue reading “UK projects teams earn their stripes as MoD makes key changes to army deal”
‘We learnt a few lessons’: Fieldfisher tries again in China
Firm completes Beijing merger, plans Shanghai return in 2017
Fieldfisher re-established its China practice in November by merging with 12-partner Beijing firm JS Partners in a combination that operates under a Swiss Verein structure.
Continue reading “‘We learnt a few lessons’: Fieldfisher tries again in China”
Dentons cracks Central America as key local player Muñoz Global joins network
Dentons has scaled up its Central American ambitions with plans to combine with regional firm Muñoz Global.
The combination, if approved by both partnerships, will give Dentons a presence in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama in early 2017. The global firm will merge with 53-lawyer Muñoz Global, a firm newly-created by Arias & Muñoz founders José Antonio Muñoz and Pedro Muñoz, who have split away from their former firm which will contrive to operate as Arias in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Continue reading “Dentons cracks Central America as key local player Muñoz Global joins network”
Snakes and ladders: Magic Circle tweaks lockstep but is it enough to hold off US firms?
Madeleine Farman reports on recent remuneration changes among the City elite
With the growing threat of losing star partners to aggressively-expanding US firms, the Magic Circle’s traditional remuneration models have come increasingly under pressure. Last month Linklaters voted through changes to its remuneration model, while at press time Clifford Chance (CC) was due to complete a review of where partners should sit on its lockstep in a bid to retain key contributors and manage under-performers, 18 months after voting through the last set of changes.